television detective serials and the end of childhood innocence

in calm contentment we could review
shootouts bank robberies all the rest
secure in the knowledge that the hero would come through
that rationo legalism is the best

then one day in the late 1970s
kojak was shooting at some thugs
i was relaxed in all my certainties
until kojak went over like a sack of spuds

and here's the rub he did survive
to keep the streets of new york free of human vermin
my sensibilities died that night
i could never put my faith in pop culture again